Want to get pregnant? Consider freezing your eggs

Egg freezing may be the answer to women facing the uncertainty of conception. More and more women are turning to the process of freezing their eggs in order to make sure that the family they’ve always dreamed will become a reality.

Professional women with demanding careers often find themselves at an age that leaves them vulnerable to the inability to conceive. By the time a woman reaches the age of 40, getting pregnant isn’t easy.

Some women find that waiting for the perfect time to start a family may never happen, and as a result feel like they may have missed the boat. So what is the answer?

Egg freezing has been around for years and was used widely in cancer patients who wanted to preserve their fertility. Many cancer treatments were damaging to a woman’s ability to conceive, thus freezing the eggs was a well-established procedure that offered certainty of a baby later on.

Today, more and more women in their 30s are turning to egg freezing. According to the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Canada, nearly 50 percent of clinics in Canada offering fertility treatment are seeing otherwise healthy women elect for egg freezing procedures. There doesn’t need to be anything wrong with a woman to receive this kind of treatment.

Statistics reveal that if a woman freezes her eggs in her early 30s and later in life decides to use them, she has a 50 percent chance of getting pregnant. This number is much higher than if the eggs were not frozen and conception was carried out naturally. The face of fertility is ever changing and offering women more opportunity to achieve the family they long for.

The Price Tag of Egg Freezing

Like most fertility treatments, egg freezing comes with a substantial price tag. Most clinics charge between $3,500 to $6,000 for egg retrieval. This is the bottom number. From there, be prepared to pay for egg storage, which runs around $1,000 for up to five years and any fertility drugs that may be needed initially.

It is also important to calculate the cost of egg implantation when the time is right. In vitro fertilization can cost between $3,000 and $5,000. Most insurance plans will not cover egg freezing and the procedures associated with it.

The total cost for the process runs about $10,000. With the high rate of success, most women considering the procedure do not pay much attention to the price tag. It is something that should be planned for but offers priceless benefits.

Who’s a Candidate for Egg Freezing?

Any healthy woman is a candidate for egg freezing. As a woman ages her egg supply decreases, so it is optimal to choose to freeze eggs earlier than later. Check with your fertility specialist today to see if you are a candidate for egg freezing.

The Health Local Staff is a team of writers and experts dedicated to bringing you the latest health, nutrition and lifestyle information at www.healthlocal.ca.